heroin

But 'I'm no expert,' Chuck Rosenberg adds

(Newser) -
Marijuana advocates celebrated when DEA head Michele Leonhart stepped down , with a rep for the Marijuana Policy Project telling Bloomberg , that Leonhart held up an era of "Reefer Madness" at the DEA and "maintained an opinion about marijuana akin to the opinion people had back in the '...
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Opioid painkillers might be the first entry point for many

(Newser) -
The number of US heroin users has grown by nearly 300,000 over a decade, with the bulk of the increase among whites, according to a new government report. Other notable increases occurred among women and those considered to be in the middle class. Experts think the increase was driven...
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Molly Alice Parks 'made a lot of bad decisions,' including drugs

(Newser) -
Molly Alice Parks died last week at 24, and when you read her obituary, you won't have to wonder about the tragedy that took her life at such a young age. The New Hampshire resident "passed away in Manchester on April 16, 2015, as the result of a...
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Jackie Smallwood hopes Summer Myers' death can save a life

(Newser) -
Summer Myers was found in a polka-dot sundress on January 4, her body sprawled on a mattress in the filthy trailer she shared with her brother in Alaska. Her skin was purple. A needle, a tourniquet, and bottles of pills surrounded her. Paramedics declared her dead of an overdose at...
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People find new ways to dissolve the pills—or turn to heroin, study says

(Newser) -
When an "abuse-deterrent" version of OxyContin was introduced in 2010, the intent was clear: "to make OxyContin more difficult to solubilize or crush, thus discouraging abuse through injection and inhalation," the New England Journal of Medicine noted in 2012. Made with special binders, the revamped pills would...
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Unsurprisingly, he's interested in meeting up

(Newser) -
Police say a woman selling drugs made a big mistake that landed her in jail—she mistakenly called an Albuquerque police detective. KOB-TV reports that 30-year-old Renea Lucero was arrested last week when she called the detective at his department-issued cellphone and made the officer an unexpected offer. Court documents...
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Clean-cut Ory Joe Johnson changed life in Laramie, Wyoming

(Newser) -
Laramie, Wyoming is a little city of about 31,000 known for its scenic location and good schools—so how did it and nearby towns fall victim to the nation's heroin trend? You can "thank" one guy, GQ reports: A high-IQ, clean-cut over-achiever named Ory Joe Johnson, who...
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(Newser) -
Someone, somewhere, must be unaware jail officials screen mail before handing it over to inmates. While checking the post at Virginia's Western Tidewater Regional Jail last week, officials came across a homemade card with the gift of heroin inside, WTKR reports. This was no isolated incident: Officials have recently...
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(Newser) -
Christmas came early for BBC reporter Quentin Sommerville's nearly 25,000 Twitter followers after he posted a rather hazy link yesterday: footage of him reporting next to a pile of flaming drugs. Or trying to report, as he bursts into uncontrollable laughter just a few seconds into the taping....
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73-year-old faces sentencing for another drug plot

(Newser) -
Alfred Catino's criminal record is a colorful history of drug dealing and prison sentences dating back to the 1960s, when federal authorities say he was part of the French Connection heroin-smuggling ring that spawned an Oscar-winning movie of the same name. The 73-year-old's illicit career took him from...
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Mom arrested after allegedly leaving drugs in backpack

(Newser) -
A mother has been arrested after she allegedly handed her daughter a backpack full of heroin, which the girl took to daycare yesterday. The Delaware girl, age four, thought the white powder was candy and gave out bags to her classmates, daycare staff told police. And there were plenty of...
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Heroin-related deaths double over 28 states from 2010 to 2012: study

(Newser) -
Heroin deaths are rising as deaths related to prescription painkiller overdoses decline, a report finds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heroin-related deaths doubled from 2010 to 2012, based on data from 28 states, HealthDay reports. Each state saw a boost in heroin-related deaths—and in the Northeast,...
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It's easier to get hold of, too, report warns

(Newser) -
Heroin addiction isn't just an urban problem in Pennsylvania, where a small packet of the drug is cheaper and easier for young people in rural areas to obtain than a six-pack of beer, a new report warns. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania's report found that an "epidemic"...
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She says he supplied him with heroin that was too strong

(Newser) -
The death of Doors frontman Jim Morrison at the age of 27 back in 1971 still has all kinds of conspiracy theories and weirdness connected to it, thanks to the lack of an autopsy. Doctors cited heart failure, and now former girlfriend Marianne Faithfull tells British music site Mojo that...
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DA says addict tortured cat, injected it with drug

(Newser) -
A quick-thinking veterinarian saved the life of a kitten after a "depraved" man tortured it and injected it with heroin, authorities say. A Pennsylvania clinic had considered euthanizing the abused kitten, which was lethargic and suffering head trauma, but it revived after it was treated with Narcan, a drug...
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Diary entry written using syringe: reports

(Newser) -
Six years before she died of a heroin overdose , Peaches Geldof apparently swore drugs wouldn't kill her. She's said to have made the vow in her own blood—using a syringe—in the diary of rocker Pete Doherty, himself well known for drug use, the New York Daily ...
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Drugs found in system too pure for relapsed addict, inquest hears

(Newser) -
A coroner has ruled that Peaches Geldof did, indeed, die of a heroin overdose , and her husband, Thomas Cohen, admitted at the inquest looking into her April death that she was using again shortly before her death, the Guardian reports. The 25-year-old mother of two had been taking methadone for...
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Police in Georgia reopen earlier case involving her boyfriend

(Newser) -
Two months before Forrest Timothy Hayes was allegedly murdered by high-end prostitute Alix Tichelman, a Georgia nightclub owner whom Tichelman identified as her boyfriend died of what appeared to be a heroin and alcohol overdose, reports CNN . Now, in the wake of Hayes' death, that case is being reopened “...
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High-priced escort even had a glass of wine before she fled, say police

(Newser) -
A high-end prostitute from Georgia was arrested Friday in California for allegedly causing a Google exec’s heroin overdose, then leaving him to die on his 50-foot yacht. Police say that Alix Catherine Tichelman, 26, rendezvoused with 51-year-old Forrest Timothy Hayes last November in Santa Cruz on his luxury watercraft,...
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Use of Vivitrol is on the rise

(Newser) -
With heroin use on the rise , more judges and corrections officials are turning to another injectable to fight the drug: They're offering Vivitrol, an opiate blocker, to heroin users they encounter. The drug uses naltrexone, which is also used to combat alcoholism , to block heroin's effects on the...
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